Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I would like to take a few moments to read the words of Alex Hood. For those who may not know, Alex Hood is one of the sacked workers of Hutchinson Ports. He works in Brisbane. I met Alex a few weeks ago and he gave me his speech notes. I said that I would like to share them with the parliament and with parliamentarians so they can understand someone's first-hand experience about what has happened to the sacked workers of Hutchinsons and what it means to them to be treated in this way by this company. I met with Alex as part of Labor's Fair Work Taskforce, as we travel around the country speaking to workers about their experiences, and he said:

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Alex Hood and I am one of the sacked workers from Hutchinson Ports.

I take the opportunity to thank … the good people here for the opportunity to speak. I have the privilege to speak today about the method of how Hutchinsons cut off employment for myself and my other … colleagues on the waterfront.

I am an everyday working-class man with a fantastic wife and a beautiful 9-year-old daughter. These 2 ladies rely on me to provide them with a home, food and clothes and all the essentials, and I have been fortunate enough to do this successfully until now. Because I was terminated in the middle of the night by email.

Our family had little time to financially prepare. Our family had no time to mentally prepare. If there was proper consultation and negotiation between the company and its employees none of this would have happened.

These are the words of an ordinary, everyday, working-class man. This is the situation that this company has placed these employees in. It is unacceptable that any employee is notified via email or text message in the middle of the night that their employment has ceased. It is unacceptable and un-Australian to treat workers this way. We have seen from this government not support, not compassion for these hardworking Australians but only a slap in the face and the minister responsible for this area, Senator Eric Abetz, saying that it was within the company's right to do that. It is not fair. This worker, Alex, wrote these words on his daughter's school notebook. He wrote them when he was at the picket line, demanding a fair go for all Australians. I am proud today to say that I stand with Alex and his co-workers in this fight for fairness.